Circle Of Power is the second album by Morning, a dream metal band from the south of Holland. I am not familiar with their first album, but Circle Of Power sounds quite nice. Although the closest references I could think of was Nightwish, this is mainly because the have a female vocalist. Her voice is not as operatic like Tarja Turunen but sounds more like Doro Pesch. Sun Caged refers to the metal elements in their music, yet Morning has a style of their own and have produced a very melodic album.

Based on the photos in the booklet, you can tell the band members are quite young. Still, they have a good potential and show on Circle Of Power they have it in them to grow. The production could use some more attention and at times the drum sounds very flat and dry and also the vocals feel as they are on a different track than the music. On the other hand, the keyboards sound very good, at times even great and all musicians know how to play their instruments. The album starts with a keyboard intro, which sounds very spacey, then crashes in with pounding guitars and drums. The second song on the album, "Seal Of Solomon," is a more mellow track, a bit keyboard orientated. Also on the track "Fear Of Today" the guitar is there, but a bit at the background in the beginning and a nice solo later in the song. On "Big Colour Travel" the crunchy guitar sound, which also dominated the first track, is back. This song ends with a spoken part as an introduction to the last song, title - track "Circle Of Power," musically a very good song but the vocals sound a bit hollow.

Circle Of Power is an album that shows the potential of this new band and is not bad to listen to, yet it also shows that the band has some things to work at. The band has a style of their own, a very melodic and progressive style, with lots of room for keyboards and at times some heavy guitar riffs. The album is not available in shops, but contact the band if you are interested. The album is not expensive, so I'd say buy it, support the band and help them grow, because they can become very big.

[The CD is now unavailable (only 200 were pressed); but the songs are on their debut Hour Of Joy (2005) -PW ed.

Similar bands: Nightwish, Sun Caged

[This review originally appeared May 2003 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]

Tracklisting: Intro / The Unknown Is Searching The Unfound / Seal Of Solomon / Fear Of Today / Big Colour Travel / A Hidden Place / Circle Of Power